Sunderland Vs Hull City Official Sunderland Not606 Match Thread

Marcos Alonso says the start to his Sunderland career "could not have gone any better", but has warned about the dangers of the players resting on the laurels.

The Spaniard, who has been one of the stand-out performers since his loan move from Fiorentina five weeks ago, insists that things can only get better by dealing a savage blow to relegation rivals Hull City this weekend.

He told the Sunderland Echo:

It's been a good few weeks, but we need to keep it this way. We have to keep it up until May 11th.

We can't let our confidence get too high, we have to keep working hard and keep going.

There are lots of games still to play. We cannot take two weeks as very good and now put our hands down.

It's all very tight in the bottom half and that's why we need to keep going to get to the best possible position.

Hull are one of our direct rivals so it's even more important than Saturday.

We have to make sure they don't get the three points.
He is right, of course. Given the run that has transformed this season from total unmitigated disaster to potentially one of the best in recent memory, it would be absolutely criminal to not make it count for anything now.

A win against Hull would put Sunderland within three or four wins of securing survival. On the other hand, a defeat would leave Hull in that stronger position whilst we faced up to a daunting few fixtures ahead of cup commitments

It couldn't really be any more finely poised. A little ruthlessness now will go a very long way towards pulling off an almost unfathomably great escape.

 

And there it is, in a nutshell.

Going down, after bringing ourselves back from the very brink, would be like finding a winning lottery ticket and losing it on your way home.

We're deep in a relegation battle but at least the players & supporters aren't deluded and laughing it off.

Supporters of clubs in the bottom half, who think there's no problem, need to give their heads a shake.

 

This isn't a dig but I stated my case, on here many times, when Hull were 10 points clear of Sunderland. I always felt that Bruce would manage to turn that lead around and he has.

Hull obviously have problems in defence and midfield but I, and other Sunderland posters, knew Bruce would sign strikers as he believes that's always the answer to everything.

I'll guarantee that Bruce's tactics will now be primarily 'long ball' and that Huddlestone & Livermore will have their effectiveness reduced. Big mistake, everything should go through them.

When I said months ago that Hull were a real contender for the drop the Hull posters 'd at me, to be fair a few on here did.

I was ridiculed by Hull supporters, weeks ago when you were 10th, for saying that, by the time you came to the North East, Sunderland would be in a position to go above you.

Make no mistake, we're both in the **** and we're very concerned but Hull's recent form is relegation form.
Whichever way you look at it, 1 point and 1 goal in 2014 is shocking. I can't see too many reasons to be confident tbh.

Take out Fulham, who almost anyone can beat, and you have to go back to the 1st of December to find Hull's last win.
Of your 6 wins, this season, 3 came in August and September when Hull had the adrenalin of a new season in the Premier League to fire them up.

Imagine if Sunderland, West Ham, Palace & Cardiff win, this weekend, and you'll see how credible 'relegation for Hull' could be.

I've seen dozens of Sunderland relegation battles and I can tell you that it's your home games that send you down.
Hull have Southampton, Man City, Arsenal & Everton out of the remaining 7 at home ..... that's a very difficult run in for any team.
Allowing Palace to do the double over you was critical in my opinion and shows how Bruce struggles with tactics.

Your next 4 away games are all at relegation rivals and your away from, I'm sure you'll agree, is very worrying.


Never mind who you've just played or what rotten luck you've had, that counts for nothing. Points count, not hard luck stories ....... stand by for more of 'Bruces excuses'. We could write his scripts

 

That's all spot on Smug...the Hull fans just don't get that Bruces teams go into free fall at this time of the year. As you point out...that's what is happening right now..very worring for them...having this form at this time of the season.

 

Off the top of me heed, I reckon they only won 1 in 6 or 7 of their last games when they were promoted ........ Bruce almost managed to **** that up didn't he?

p.s, you can see I'm bored, our lass isn't great so I'm sitting here quietly so I don't wake her up.
I've had to cancel my trip back this weekend for the match, which is a shame.
To be fair I'm back for 3 days at Wembley so I can't complain

 

I can honestly say that i have not watched a single Hull game this season apart from our game, so i've got no idea about your players, does Elmo or Meyler play often? Are they doing any good?

 

You sound like a Partridge wannabee at times...."needless to say I had the last laugh".

17th will do us. I've said that all along. The majority of City fans have said similar, even during December, when it looked slightly rosier.

I agree with the rest of the stuff you say.

 

Aye that sounds familiar.

 

Smugs.I was predicting you may be above us before we played each other.My next medium term prediction is that 5 matches from now we will again be above you-I expect by 3-4 points.If that is the case I think we will both stay up.TBH I do not care if we finish above or below you as long as we stay up.
Despite all the political stuff we are lucky to be in the Prem with a chairman allowing SB to spend fairly sensibly(all managers will get some wrong).Honestly to be thinking we have any chance of being on the same points as Sunderland at this stage of the season and the thought of giving you a decent game at SoL is pretty mind boggling for someone who started following the Tigers in 1965.
I remember you lot being very loud at Boothferry Park and hope we can return the compliment on Saturday.

 

I couldn't care less what you'd do, this is a football forum where people post their opinions on football.

Hull supporters seem to be brainwashed to say, "You don't know anything about Hull so shouldn't say anything." Your mods are always tripping that line out.

You're talking about your strikers as if you're an expert on them despite probably seeing less of them than I have over the years.

We know quite a bit about all the ex-Sunderland players and particularly the manager so don't talk ****e.

This isn't the olden days when supporters knew little about other clubs ........ all matches are shown and analysed in detail, in truth most supporters know as much as the next.

You don't have any inside info despite always pretending you do

Besides, if you don't like hearing other people's opinions just stay on the Hull board and lick each others backsides

 

I always hold my hands up when I'm wrong and people, on here, don't hesitate to tell me.

When I'm right I'll say so to redress the balance

I'm know there are reasonable Hull supporters but there are knobs, like the ones who stayed here for a fortnight, boasting about how Hull would finish top ten, see Sunderland relegated and push for Europe.

There are people on your board claiming they'll win easily at Sunderland, 3-0, whereas I haven't seen many Sunderland saying that, if any.

As I said mate, we're both in the **** but we seem more inclined to admit it ............ only in my opinion though.

 

You said that the last 2 times you lost an argument and couldn't think of a decent response .......... I'm as cool as the other side of the pillow mate, these forums don't always reflect your true personality.

You come across as an arrogant teenager with an inflated ego and an inability to follow logic, but that could be a totally false impression.

Don't you think we're entitled, and able, to discuss Bruce after the time he spent here?

How can you claim to know better when you were claiming he's the manager you've ever had and that he'll do well?

We all told you what would happen after Christmas and you laughed ........... who's laughing now

 

' gotcha

 

You sure did .......... now I feel totally humiliated, last time I try to be polite to such a cunning little trickster

 

I was there one afternoon when the police horses came onto the terraces to split the supporters up ....... was always a laugh down there.

One of our lads got his nickname from the 3-0 opening day defeat at Hull ....... 'Glen the Merciless'.

We were driving the minibus out of Hull and were ambushed by a gang of Hull chucking bricks etc.
I pretended to speed past but did a 'right, right, right' and came up behind them under a railway bridge.

We all bailed out and chased them. Glen caught one lad and cornered him.
He said, "Don't beat me up, I've already been beaten up once today!"

But Merciless gave him a good hiding any way, the bastard

 

Excellent, it gives me enormous pleasure - I'm juvenile like that.

 

This may well be my last post, I've taken it badly tbh ............